Indian Country Today Media Network.com - Aztechttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/tags/aztec
enDay of the Dead Art: Helping Heal After Losing Loved Oneshttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/11/01/day-dead-art-helping-heal-after-losing-loved-ones-157582
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>The Day of the Dead has become an increasingly popular celebration, especially in the arts.</p></div></div></div>Sat, 01 Nov 2014 14:00:00 +0000leeanne157582 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/11/01/day-dead-art-helping-heal-after-losing-loved-ones-157582#commentsPoppin' Corn for Thousands of Yearshttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/08/08/poppin-corn-thousands-years-156235
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>Growing up, my mother used popcorn to garnish cream of tomato soup with a few popped kernels on top "to make it pretty." I thought everbody did that.</p></div></div></div>Fri, 08 Aug 2014 17:13:13 +0000klb678156235 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/08/08/poppin-corn-thousands-years-156235#commentsA Legacy of Genocide: The San Salvadorhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/03/04/legacy-genocide-san-salvador-153683
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p><span style="line-height:1.6em;">What do you see when you look out across San Diego and see the San Salvador being reconstructed?</span></p>
<p>Do you see the first wave of wave upon wave of white settlers who systematically dispossessed California’s indigenous people of their lands?</p>
<p>Do you see the beginnings of a process that reduced the indigenous population of California from 250,000 in 1800 to less than 20,000 in the matter of a century?</p>
<p><img alt="Oil painting of Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo. He was painted about 1,500 times. (Wikimedia Commons)" class="media-image media-image-left" height="200" style="line-height: 1.6em; width: 142px; height: 200px; margin-left: 2px; margin-right: 2px; float: left;" width="142" typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://d1jrw5jterzxwu.cloudfront.net/sites/default/files/default/files/uploads/juan-rodriguez-cabrillo.jpg" title="" />Do you see the face of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo grinning maniacally back at you? Do you see the faces of him and his men joining up with Hernan Cortes in the ethnic cleansing of Mexico?</p>
<p><a href="https://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/03/04/san-salvador-project-ignoring-genocide" target="_self">RELATED: Steve Newcomb's column, "The San Salvador Project: Ignoring Genocide"</a></p>
<p>Do you see Cabrillo and the men who Bernal Diaz del Castillo, the conquistador and chronicler of the Mexican conquest, wrote about when he famously stated, “We came here to serve God. And to get rich”?</p>
<p>Do you see the faces of miners who came here not to serve God, but simply to get rich? Do you see the flames in indigenous villages started by miners in acts where, as Robert F. Heizer described in <em>The Destruction of California Indians</em>, “It was not uncommon for small groups of villages to be attacked by immigrants…and virtually wiped out overnight”?<img alt="" class="media-image media-image-right" height="391" style="line-height: 1.6em; width: 260px; height: 391px; margin-left: 2px; margin-right: 2px; float: right;" width="260" typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://d1jrw5jterzxwu.cloudfront.net/sites/default/files/default/files/uploads/the-destruction-of-california-indians.jpg" title="" /></p>
<p>Do you hear the clink of gold and feel the excitement of loot in the words of Board of Port Commissioners Chairman Scott Peters when he declares, “One mission of the Port is to activate the waterfront and this will bring millions to the waterfront”?</p>
<p>Do you select “<a href="http://www.portofsandiego.org/recreation/2523-maritime-museum-port-celebrate-milestone-in-construction-of-historic-ship-replica.html" target="_blank">a slice of San Diego’s heritage and history</a>” that fits your agenda while ignoring the facts like Kevin Faulconer did with this reconstruction and that he’s doing with his statements about Barrio Logan?</p>
<p>Do you see the bloody swords of men who ruthlessly slaughtered 1,000 Aztec nobles participating in religious celebrations at the main temple in Tenochtitlan?</p>
<p></div></div></div>Tue, 04 Mar 2014 15:52:14 +0000leeanne153683 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/03/04/legacy-genocide-san-salvador-153683#commentsThe Indian Holocaust and the Hopi Nationhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/04/10/indian-holocaust-and-hopi-nation
<fieldset class="field-group-fieldset group-opinions-body form-wrapper" id="node_opinion_rss_group_opinions_body"><legend><span class="fieldset-legend">Body</span></legend><div class="fieldset-wrapper"><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>Néret-Minet Tessier &amp; Sarrou, a Parisian auction house that I’m sure perceives itself as catering to only the “best people,” is about to auction off cultural patrimony looted from the Hopi Nation.</p>
<p>Auctioneer Gilles Néret-Minet dismissed Hopi claims because “they rely on an article of the Hopi constitution which is not recognized in France because it is not a State." While the indecency of this sale is recognized by many less sophisticated than French art dealers, I am personally inflamed by the swell-headed arrogance of not recognizing the Hopi Nation combined with ignorance of the scientific consensus that the Hopi have inhabited what is now the Four Corners area of the United States since 500 B.C.E.</p>
<p>Plenty of American Indians have oral traditions that place them on their land from time immemorial, but I am talking about white people, archaeologists and historians, doing what they do by the standards of their academic trades.</p>
<p>The Hopi people have occupied their mesas though the <em>entradas</em> of the Spanish gold seekers. In the 17<sup>th</sup> Century, they joined with other peaceful farmers in the Pueblo Rebellion, which ran the Spaniards out of Pueblo lands over numerous instances of theft, homicide, rape, and kidnapping. Some call the Pueblo Rebellion a rejection of “civilization.” I’m a retired criminal justice professor, so I always saw it as a crackdown on crime.</p>
<p>Spanish jurisdiction, assuming it ever existed, ended with the Treaty of Córdoba in 1821, although Spain never ratified Córdoba and vainly asserted sovereignty until 1836. The US fought a war of conquest against Mexico that ended with the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo in 1848, and these people who had never been Spanish and never been Mexican became not Americans. American Indians were not recognized as US citizens until 1924.</p>
<p>Even though the Hopis were not Americans, the US attempted to impose its culture in a manner not seen since the Spanish. Hopi Chief Lomahongyoma and 18 others served hard time in <a href="http://www.legendsofamerica.com/ca-alcatraz.html" target="_blank">Alcatraz</a> from January 3rd to August 7, 1895, because of their resistance to forced acculturation.</p>
<p>The Hopi Nation endured, the Hopi ceremonial cycle—which involves the use of the masks that the French barbarians claim the right to sell—endures, and the French ratification of the looting of Hopiland for “artwork” is a striking bit of ignorance in a people who claim sophistication far beyond the ken of Americans, let alone American Indians.</p>
<p>There is a similar and more recent looting that has disturbed the traditional customs of every art dealer in Europe. Not everybody knows that the word “genocide” is new to the human vocabulary, but most people know the events that led to it, the death of approximately six million Jews because Adolf Hitler, an ideological racist, conflated a religion with a race. Jewish people call it <em>Shoah</em>, related to the English words “calamity” or “catastrophe”; the rest of us refer to The Holocaust.</p>
<p>The horror of the mass killings somewhat trivializes the concomitant looting, a looting that was coextensive with Hitler’s racial fantasies. A scholar writing about Eastern Europe observed, “Because the Slavs were considered an inferior race, the Germans looted and pillaged private homes, state museums, and churches. They took all the ‘Germanic art’ that they could find and destroyed what they did not take.” The Nazis held bonfires of “degenerate art.”</p>
<p>This would be a familiar scenario to American Indians. To this day, the best cultural artifacts of the Aztec Empire can be seen in the Prado and the Museum of the Americas, Madrid, Spain.</p>
<p>The Mayan Codices, which would have been the best evidence of a literate and scientifically based civilization, were destroyed by order of Bishop Diego de Landa, who wrote: "We found a large number of books in these (Mayan) characters and, as they contained nothing not to be seen as superstition and lies of the devil, we burned them all, which they (the Maya) regretted to an amazing degree, and which caused them much affliction." As this is written, the only Mayan books preserved to the present are named for their locations: the Madrid Codex, the Dresden Codex and the Paris Codex.</p>
<p>Paris brings us back to what the French should know about looting based on racism. About a fourth of French Jews went to the death camps, but many others turned their property over to the French government for safekeeping from the Nazis.</p>
<p>Michelle I. Turner, writing in the <em>Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law</em>, pointed out: “In the case of Nazi-looted art, there is, today at least, a great deal of information available about what happened during World War II, and there is a great awareness even among the general public of the danger that an artwork may have been looted. It is highly unlikely, therefore, that an art buyer who purchases a looted artwork today can later claim to have been completely innocent.”</p>
<p>The question becomes whether the urbane and sophisticated French can similarly understand the American Indian holocaust and the looting that accompanied it? Hiding behind non-recognition of the Hopi government ignores the French government’s ratification of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which provides in Article 11: “States shall provide redress through effective mechanisms, which may include restitution, developed in conjunction with indigenous peoples, with respect to their cultural, intellectual, religious and spiritual property taken without their free, prior and informed consent <em>or in violation of their laws, traditions and customs</em>.”</p>
<p>Failing to halt this convocation of thieves ignores a plea from the government that has ordered life on the Three Mesas for longer than white people have walked on this land. If this represents civilization, I’m content as a heathen.</p>
<p><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><em>Steve Russell, Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is a Texas trial court judge by assignment and associate professor emeritus of criminal justice at Indiana University-Bloomington. He lives in Georgetown, Texas.</em></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
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<div class="field field-name-field-short-title field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Short title:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">The Indian Holocaust and the Hopi Nation</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-category field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Category:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/history" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">History</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-full-name field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Full name:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Steve Russell</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/steve-russell" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Steve Russell</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/neret-minet-tessier-sarrou" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Néret-Minet Tessier &amp; Sarrou</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/hopi" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Hopi</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/four-corners" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Four Corners</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/pueblo-rebellion" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Pueblo Rebellion</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/treaty-cordoba" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Treaty of Córdoba</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/lomahongyoma" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Lomahongyoma</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/alcatraz" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Alcatraz</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/mayan-codices" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Mayan Codices</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/nazis" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Nazis</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/aztec" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Aztec</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/madrid-codex" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Madrid Codex</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/dresden-codex" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Dresden Codex</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/paris-codex" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Paris Codex</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author-image field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Author image:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/author/steve-russell" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Steve Russell</a></div></div></div>Wed, 10 Apr 2013 11:00:06 +0000mazecyrus148698 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/04/10/indian-holocaust-and-hopi-nation#commentsDía de Guadalupe: Celebrating Mexico’s Indigenous Virgin Maryhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/12/12/dia-de-guadalupe-celebrating-mexicos-indigenous-virgin-mary-146277
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>Not only is today the last time in the foreseeable future that the month, day and year will be the same but it’s also the day for the annual homage to the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico.</p></div></div></div>Wed, 12 Dec 2012 22:53:00 +0000leeanne146277 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/12/12/dia-de-guadalupe-celebrating-mexicos-indigenous-virgin-mary-146277#commentsGold Mining Doesn't Glitterhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/11/18/gold-mining-doesnt-glitter
<fieldset class="field-group-fieldset group-opinions-body form-wrapper" id="node_opinion_rss_group_opinions_body"><legend><span class="fieldset-legend">Body</span></legend><div class="fieldset-wrapper"><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>People have mined gold for centuries. Archeological evidence points to gold mining at least 7,000 years ago. Stories of Aztec gold drove 16th century Spaniards to invade the continent, where they found products of a rich mining and smelting history.</p>
<p>"Gold rush" is a common phenomenon in North American history. The yellow metal drove repeated waves of invaders across the continent. California is the stereotypical locale, but Colorado and Alaska were also locations of intense mining fever. Charlie Chaplin made a movie of the Klondike rush. W.C. Fields parodied gold rush films in <i>The Fatal Glass of Beer</i>, where he utters the famous line about a night that "ain't fit for man nor beast."</p>
<p>While no country's currency now operates on the "gold standard," many countries maintain substantial reserves of gold. The U.S. is only 19th on the list, below Mexico and just above Malaysia. China tops the list, followed by Japan and the European Union.</p>
<p>Gold is important in high-tech products and projects. The Keck Observatory, in Hawai'i, coats its secondary mirror in gold. Computers and other electronic devices require gold. Lawrence Livermore Labs says, "nanostructured gold is a very promising candidate as a catalyst, optic, sensor, energy harvester as well as an energy storer." And, as you might expect in this crazy world, there are gold toilets.</p>
<p>The problem—and it's a big one—is that gold mining is dirty, very dirty. The Western Shoshone "No Dirty Gold" campaign aims at drawing attention to the dirty business, as well as to the inequities of mining that eats at their lands while providing others with immense profits. As a measure of the effects, the Western Shoshone point out that it takes ten tons of ore to extract one ounce of gold. Of all gold extracted, 85 percent ends up in jewelry, 5 percent in dentistry, and 10% in industrial uses.</p>
<p>The Western Shoshone have fought for decades to limit mining and to get their share of mining proceeds under the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has run roughshod over Western Shoshone lands, permitting international mining corporations to expand operations, without any input from or compensation to the original inhabitants of the land. Litigation has, to date, not been successful.</p>
<p>In July 2012, the first ever People's Health Tribunal in San Miguel Ixtahuacán, Guatemala, took up the issue of destructive gold mining. Representatives from throughout Central America testified about the effects of mining on their communities. The Tribunal panel consisted of scientists, health workers, and human rights defenders.</p>
<p>Testimony at the Tribunal presented evidence of serious health effects, including respiratory diseases, skin diseases, increased instances of cancer, premature births, and an increase in birth defects and miscarriages. Testimony also described political effects attendant on gold mining, such as physical violence directed at community members, assassinations of those who speak out against mining, and government repression aimed at supporting the mines.</p>
<p>One representative to the Tribunal described the mines as "trauma for communities," bringing "irreparable harms, harms that have no price, that last for hundreds of years." From this point of view, the mines are a violation of the right to free, prior, and informed consent upheld by the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the right to be properly consulted, as protected by the International Labor Organization's (ILO) Convention 169.</p>
<p>An expert witness, Dr. Juan Almendares, Honduran doctor and founder of the Honduran Science Academy, stated, "If we want to analyze health, we need to talk about not just one system, but all the systems...We need to integrate science, spirituality, and the social conscience". He added, "Knowledge isn't just created in universities, but also among people...We need to listen to each other, to listen to each other's knowledge and wisdom."</p>
<p>The People's Tribunal does not have legal power to make changes in mining laws and practices, but it does have power to make people's voices heard and provide space for communities to speak to the world. To the extent that political and legal institutions must in the end take into account what is happening in people's lives, the Tribunal is a powerful event. There are many examples around the world of terrible social chaos resulting when people become desperate for change after governments ignore what is happening to them.</p>
<p>Goldcorp, the Canadian mining company responsible for some of the mines in Central America, was assisted by a $45M loan from the World Bank. After the Inter American Commission on Human Rights criticized the company, it issued a statement proclaiming its adherence to international standards, and the Guatemalan government ignored the Commission's recommended precautionary measures.</p>
<p>Extraction of resources without regard to community integrity is a hallmark of colonialism. It continues in the guise of international business. Not everything about gold glitters.</p>
<p><i>Peter d’Errico graduated from Yale Law School in 1968. Staff attorney in Dinebeiina Nahiilna Be Agaditahe Navajo Legal Services, 1968-1970. Taught Legal Studies at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1970-2002. Consulting attorney on indigenous issues.</i></p>
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<div class="field field-name-field-short-title field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Short title:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Gold Mining</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-category field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Category:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/environment" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Environment</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-full-name field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Full name:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Peter d&#039;Errico</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/peter-derrico" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Peter d&#039;Errico</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/gold-mining" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Gold Mining</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/aztec" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Aztec</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/wc-fields" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">W.C. Fields</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/keck-observatory" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Keck Observatory</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/western-shoshone" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Western Shoshone</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/bureau-land-management" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Bureau of Land Management</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/blm" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">BLM</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/peoples-health-tribunal" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">People&#039;s Health Tribunal</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/un-declaration-rights-indigenous-peoples-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/undrip" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">UNDRIP</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/international-labor-organization" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">International Labor Organization</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author-image field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Author image:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/author/peter-d%27errico" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Peter d&#039;Errico</a></div></div></div>Sun, 18 Nov 2012 12:00:00 +0000mazecyrus145721 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/11/18/gold-mining-doesnt-glitter#commentsArchaeologists Uncover Hundreds of Bones in Unusual Aztec Burial in Mexicohttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/08/10/archaeologists-uncover-hundreds-bones-unusual-aztec-burial-mexico-128196
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>The remains of a young woman were found surrounded by 1,789 human bones in Mexico City’s Templo Mayor—a find that is the first of its kind in the <a title="Aztec" href="http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/tag/aztec" target="_blank">Aztec</a></p></div></div></div>Fri, 10 Aug 2012 18:00:38 +0000leeanne128196 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/08/10/archaeologists-uncover-hundreds-bones-unusual-aztec-burial-mexico-128196#commentsIndians Embrace Aztec Prints. The Other Kind of Indians, That Ishttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/07/30/indians-embrace-aztec-prints-other-kind-indians-126324
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>Fashion knows no international boundaries, and cultural traditions that took centuries to develop can be repurposed or remixed in the blink of an eye by a designer.</p></div></div></div>Mon, 30 Jul 2012 18:29:42 +0000jrobertson126324 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/07/30/indians-embrace-aztec-prints-other-kind-indians-126324#commentsIn Celebration of National Nursing Week: The First Women of Healinghttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/05/13/celebration-national-nursing-week-first-women-healing
<fieldset class="field-group-fieldset group-opinions-body form-wrapper" id="node_opinion_rss_group_opinions_body"><legend><span class="fieldset-legend">Body</span></legend><div class="fieldset-wrapper"><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>In 1982 President Ronald Reagan signed a proclamation on March 25, proclaiming a “National Recognition Day for Nurses.” The ANA Board of Directors expanded the recognition of nurses in 1991, to a week-long celebration, declaring May 6–12, as National Nurses Week in conjunction with “credited” founder of nursing Florence Nightingale’s birthday; two years later, National Nurses Week was officially designated as a permanent observation in all subsequent years.</p>
<p>Before Florence Nightingale, however, American Indian women collected essential herbs, roots, barks and berries; making teas, poultices and singing healing songs of her foremothers— medicinal lore passed down from grandmother, to mother to daughter for thousands of years before white men set foot on Native soil; and would later claim this knowledge as their own. American Indian women have been denied the gratitude from the lessons that unite ancient wisdom with today’s healing arts with little recognition as the First women of healing.</p>
<p>Taken from the article "100 Amazing Indian Discoveries," in <em>American Indian Magazine of the National Museum of the American Indian</em>, fall 2004, before Western science we learn, American Indians practiced <em>asepsis</em> (sterile technique) to clean wounds and incisions with water they had sterilized by boiling; keeping wounds clean and bacteria free. About 1000 B.C. Native healers used anesthetics from medicinal plants, including coca, peyote, witch hazel and dutura to ease aches and pains. They also used anesthetics to help the patient lose consciousness before surgery. The Aztec physicians understood the structure and function of the human body (anatomical knowledge), including the circulatory system long before European doctor’s possessed this knowledge, and North American Indian healers administered medicine beneath the skin with hypodermic syringes made from hollow bird bones and small animal bladders. Europeans did not start using hypodermic syringes until 1853.</p>
<p>The late Mohegan Medicine Woman Gladys Tantaquidgeon asserts, “The Indian pharmacists were not all “medicine men,” as might be supposed from that current phrase (these seem to act more as psychiatrists, exorcists, and hypnotists). More likely, they were knowledgeable elderly women.” Gladys was the third of seven children born to Mohegan parents in Uncasville, Connecticut. In childhood, she learned traditional practices, beliefs, and lore from nanus or respected elder women from her tribe. At 18 she attended the University of Pennsylvania to study anthropology, where she studied and worked with noted anthropologist, Frank G. Speck. She also worked to preserve and revive Mohegan tribal customs and language. She became a council member and elected Tribal Medicine Woman, publishing several books about traditional herbal medicine. Her best-known work, <a title="A Study of Delaware Indian Medicine Practices and Folk Beliefs" href="http://archive.org/details/studyofdelawarei00tant" target="_blank"><em>A Study of Delaware Indian Medicine Practices and Folk Beliefs</em></a>, was published in 1942 and reprinted in 1972 and 1995 as <a title="Folk Medicine of the Delaware and Related Algonkian Indians" href="http://www.amazon.com/Medicine-Delaware-Related-Algonkian-Indians/dp/0892710896" target="_blank"><em>Folk Medicine of the Delaware and Related Algonkian Indians</em></a>. Later she received honorary doctorate degrees from the University of Connecticut (1987) and Yale University (1994); and in 1994, she was inducted into the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame.</p>
<p>Susie Walking Bear Yellowtail, RN (1903-1981), who is one of the thousands of nurses who has dedicated herself to profession of nursing. On July 1, she became the first American Indian nurse to be inducted into the American Nursing Association’s prestigious Hall of Fame. Born on the Crow Agency reservation in Montana, Susie was the first American Indian registered nurse in the U.S., as well as an activist who fought tirelessly to achieve better health care for Indian people. After graduating from Boston City Hospital School of Nursing in 1923, she returned to Crow Agency to work in the Bureau of Indian Affairs Hospital. There she witnessed forced sterilization of Crow women without their consent—mobilized her into a lifelong fight to end abuses in the Indian health care system.</p>
<p>From 1930 to 1960, she traveled to reservations throughout the country. One of Yellowtail’s assessments revealed that seriously ill Navajo children were literally dying on the backs of their mothers, who often had to walk 20 miles or more to reach the nearest hospital. She joined state health advisory boards and quickly became well known among national health care policy-makers to fight these inequities.</p>
<p>Yellowtail was appointed to President Nixon’s Council on Indian Health, Education and Welfare, and to the federal Indian Health Advisory Committee in 1970. These appointments gave her a national platform advocating for the health needs of her people. She also founded the first professional association for Native American nurses and was instrumental in winning tribal and government funding to help Indians enter the nursing profession. In 1962, Yellowtail received the President’s Award for Outstanding Nursing Health Care.</p>
<p>On this day, I would also like to honor my sister Lorraine (E. Pequot-Nottoway), who is a registered nurse and a practitioner of Healing Touch, including medicinal teas and herbs as part of her practice. There are so many other incredible women who have moved the profession of healing forward for the next generation of Indian nurses and are deserving of acknowledgement. Help celebrate nursing week by recognizing a nurse of your acquaintance in the response column below; creating ICTMN first American Indian Nurse Page of Fame.</p>
<p>Even though Nurses Week ended yesterday, it is not too late to celebrate women of healing in your life.</p>
<p><em>Julianne Jennings, E. Pequot-Nottoway, is a Ph.D. student at Arizona State University.</em></p>
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<div class="field field-name-field-short-title field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Short title:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">In Celebration of Na</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-category field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Category:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/all" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">All</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/health" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Health</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-full-name field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Full name:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Julianne Jennings</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/aztec" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Aztec</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/julianne-jennings-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Julianne Jennings</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/ronald-reagan" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Ronald Reagan</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/nursing" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Nursing</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/national-nurses-week" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">National Nurses Week</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/florence-nightingale" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Florence Nightingale</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/susie-walking-bear-yellowtail" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Susie Walking Bear Yellowtail</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author-image field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Author image:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/author/julianne-jennings" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Julianne Jennings</a></div></div></div>Sun, 13 May 2012 15:00:13 +0000mazecyrus112729 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/05/13/celebration-national-nursing-week-first-women-healing#commentsAvocados: Ripe in Aztec History http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/04/29/avocados-ripe-aztec-history-110501
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><div class="caption" style="float:left;width:150;margin-right:10px;margin-bottom: 10px;"><img class="size-full wp-image-14624" src="http://d1jrw5jterzxwu.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/DaleCarsonHeadshot-e1296236748904.jpeg" alt="" wi="" /></div></div></div></div>Sun, 29 Apr 2012 17:00:48 +0000klb678110501 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/04/29/avocados-ripe-aztec-history-110501#comments